Ecology? Hamlet? Who cares? Millions of kids clicking online

When a lesson in biology or A.P. World History gets more than a million page views, it behooves anyone interested in education to find out what’s so compelling.

Such statistics are standard for CrashCourse, a YouTube channel hugely popular with high school students and, by extension, their curious parents. As of this month, CrashCourse has earned more than 1.4 million subscribers and attracted 82 million video views since it first aired on YouTube in 2011.

What makes John Green’s lessons on the agricultural revolution or ancient Mesopotamia so much more interesting than traditional history lectures? Memorable examples that convey emotion and use animation to illustrate key concepts, say students.

Put another way: CrashCourse is reminiscent of classic “Schoolhouse Rock” episodes, but for big kids. Students often use it to augment their understanding of in-school classes, which is likely why acclaimed non-profit tutoring center Khan Academy posts the Greens’ 10-minute lectures on its own site.

During most segments, presenter John Green (also a best-selling author of Young Adult novels) intersperses lessons written by his own former teacher at Indian Springs School in Alabama with illustrations that diagram the concepts at issue. Green is geeky, energetic and funny – exactly what a high school student might envision if fashioning her ideal instructor.

Here’s a sample, from his description of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: “Violent, unpredictable and difficult to navigate,” Green begins. “Oh, Tigris–Euphrates, how you remind me of my college girlfriend.”

Beyond the jokes, CrashCourse also offers lessons on biology, economics and ecology (the science episodes are narrated by Green’s brother, Hank). Every concept is delivered rapid-fire, with lots of highs and lows, as if the Greens, too, are discovering their wonder. Nothing sounds as if they’ve imparted the same knowledge for 20 years, a familiar refrain among high school students complaining about uninspired instruction.

As one sophomore from Vashon Island High School put it: “A lot of teachers talk in monotone. It doesn’t even sound like they’re excited about what they’re teaching.” But the Greens distill lessons down to their essence — minus any distractions. “They show you the parts that matter. It’s the same way you retain stuff when books are turned into movies.”

Stories in the series

When tackling the topic of student discipline, some of the country’s toughest schools have done a turnaround. Instead of focusing on rules broken, they now ask kids to confront themselves. The result? Fewer suspensions and new perspective on the point of school itself. Read the story →

It stands to reason: Kick troubled students out of school and they often come back even worse. The Kent School District is trying to tackle this national problem by overhauling the way it handles discipline. But its answers spark even more questions. Read the story →

In an idea borrowed from college athletics, the University of Washington boosts promising engineering students — many of them women and minorities — with an extra year of academic work. Read the story →

Boosting the quality of preschool in Seattle could help children, and the city as a whole. A number of studies, including one from the ’60s, establish that potential. But there is no guarantee of success. Read the story →

Universal, free preschool in Tulsa, Okla., has produced results attracting national attention, and could be a blueprint for Seattle. But after 16 years the long-term outcomes raise almost as many questions as they answer. Read the story →

Communication failures both within Seattle Public Schools and with parents of children with disabilities continue to undermine the district’s efforts to fix longstanding problems in special education. Read the story →

A new focus on individualized advice and counseling, boosted by software tools, is helping hundreds more students earn degrees and certificates each year at Walla Walla Community College. Read the story →

The path to college often leaves disadvantaged students behind. Two unusual nonprofits, one based in Seattle, have helped vault thousands of low-income students onto university campuses. Read the story →

In an attempt to add depth to the curriculum in America's most popular advanced high-school courses, some local teachers threw out most of their lectures and replaced them with a series of projects. Results so far are encouraging. Read the story →

Western Washington University college students are working as mentors, tutors and role models for thousands of K-12 students in and around Bellingham. The goal: convince them that college should be part of their educational trajectory. Read the story →

Kent educators combed through transcripts and discovered 2,600 young people in their district without any kind of diploma or credential. Enter iGrad, a program linking dropouts with college, that has been flooded with kids who want a second chance. Read the story →

A community group in northwest Chicago has turned hundreds of hesitant parents into capable classroom helpers, role models and leaders by tapping into strengths many don't realize they have. Read the story →

Missing just a few days of class in sixth grade can predict whether you'll graduate from high school. That research powers a national anti-dropout effort that's making a difference at Seattle's Aki Kurose and Denny International middle schools. Read the story →

For years, students at White Center Heights Elementary logged some of the lowest test scores in King County. Then teachers tried something new, and the numbers soared by double-digits after just one year. So what happened, and could it be replicated elsewhere? Read the story →

About the authors

John Higgins is one of Education Lab's reporters. He was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2012 to 2013.

Katherine Long has been a reporter for The Seattle Times since 1990, focusing for the past three years on higher ed, with stories that have ranged from the complexities of prepaid tuition programs to nontraditional ways to earn a degree.

Claudia Rowe joined The Seattle Times’ reporting staff in 2013. She has written about education for The New York Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, among other publications.

Leah Todd is an education reporter at The Times. She previously covered education for the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming.

Mike Siegel has been a news photographer at the Seattle Times since 1987. His photography was used in a series titled "Methadone and the Politics of Pain," which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for investigative reporting.

Linda Shaw is The Times’ education editor. Previously, she covered public education as a reporter at The Seattle Times for more than two decades. Her coverage has won numerous national and local awards and honors.

Caitlin Moran is community engagement editor for Education Lab. She came to The Times from Patch, where she spent three years managing hyperlocal news websites on the Eastside.

About Solutions Journalism Network

The Education Lab project is being done with the support of the Solutions Journalism Network. SJN is a non-profit organization created to legitimize and spread the practice of solutions journalism: rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems.